All posts tagged Porsche AG

LEIPZIG, Germany—As Porsche maneuvers deeper into the markets for SUVs and sedans, it is racing to remind a new generation of drivers what gave the brand its original mystique—speed.

The brand has unnerved purists in recent years, first with the launch of its hulking Cayenne sport-utility vehicle, then a four-door sedan called the Panamera. Though the expansion has boosted the Volkswagen AG-owned car maker’s sales by nearly 50% over the past four years, the Cayenne and Panamera made up roughly three-quarters of its 143,000 vehicle sales last year.

German sports-car maker Porsche unveiled the production version of its 918 Spyder, a plug-in-hybrid supercar, which, like your neighbor’s Toyota Prius, uses a combination of gasoline and electric power to improve acceleration while boosting fuel economy in around-town driving.

That pretty much covers the similarities.

The all-wheel-drive 918 generates 887 horsepower from a V8 engine and electric motors on its front and rear axles, sprints from zero to 60 miles an hour in 2.8 seconds and has a top speed of 211 mph.

THE GERMAN AUTOBAHN is not a polished monument but an ongoing civil-engineering megaproject, a national priority, forever being widened and overpassed as Europe’s largest economy struggles to increase its surface carrying capacity and open blocked arteries to the east. Germany seems to have recently cornered the market in traffic cones.

As a result, driving in the Vaterland can be an anguishing mix of blasting down brand-new, perfect asphalt, three lanes wide at three-digit speeds for a long, long time; and brutal traffic stoppages that practically constitute human bondage. This environment draws out the best and worst in a particular car, and after more than 2,000 kilometers in four days in a redesigned-for-2014 Porsche Cayman S with a pedal clutch, I feel I have learned some things:

Sports-car maker Porsche AG said it agreed to a three-year endorsement deal with Maria Sharapova. The 26-year-old tennis star will be Porsche’s “brand ambassador” as part of a global communications campaign.

Porsche, which sponsors the German women’s national team and the Porsche Talent Team, Germany, which supports promising young players, said the latest agreement reflects its “long-term commitment to women´s tennis.”

Los Angeles is a town where people like to get noticed for what they drive, and expect to be served the auto industry’s freshest ideas.

Which is why the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opened late last week, makes an excellent place for spotting trends. There, the newest approaches to electric cars are being spotlighted. And old notions of what makes high-performance luxury cars worth the money are being upended.

IN MY CONTINUING war on U.S. customary units of weights and measures, I would like to point out that, on Porsche’s U.S. website, the fuel-injection pressure of the Cayenne Diesel is listed as 29,007 pounds per square inch.

Really? Is that the number the people at Robert Bosch had in mind when they were modeling the V6′s common-rail, direct-injection fuel system? Yah, neunundzwanzig tausend…und sieben! Why don’t we join the civilized world and call that 200 megapascals, or the elegantly convertible 2,000 bar? What’s with the drams per hectare?

LOS ANGELES – Porsche AG has put the idea of building a 21st Century version of the legendary Porsche 550 sports car back “into the desk,” CEO Matthias Mueller says.

Mr. Mueller had earlier this year floated the idea of a new Porsche sports car that would be priced below the brand’s Boxster and Cayman models. The original 550, produced in the 1950s, was a low-slung open-top car embraced by racers and celebrities, including actor James Dean.

YOU’RE A RECENTLY retired senior government official and you’re looking forward to a drive in the country. France, maybe.

What is your choice? What car would you choose if you were on the run, in Europe, with two federal pensions and about, oh, a month or two to kill? For the sake of the hypothetical and purely as a matter of speculation, assume you are not alone, you old dog.

Me? My answer is always the Hennessey Cadillac CTS-V wagon with a six-speed stick. Duh. However, I recognize there are other good candidates. They are both named Porsche.

When a car breaks down after the warranty expires, owners have more power than ever before to negotiate with car dealers and car makers to fix the problems.

Just as the advent of social media has handed new power to retail shoppers, hotel guests and other consumers, disgruntled car owners suffering similar problems can more easily combine efforts to pressure auto makers to bend on repair costs.

Blogs and government websites make news of widespread maintenance issues easier to find.